Q.N. I think you know who I own and who I don't. R&R please!
"Hey, Snively?" Sam asked one April morning.
"Dad's not here," Hope said, looking up from a book. She had been recently enrolled into an Earth school and was doing homework from the day before. She didn't have school today because of something called 'Teacher's Institute.'
"Where's he at?"
"I think he went to Rotor's. Why?"
"Oh, I just need to talk to him about something," Sam replied. She picked up Chibi and walked over to Rotor's and knocked on the door. She heard someone say 'come in' and opened the door.
"Whatcha guys doing?"
"Working on Ro-becca," Rotor said.
"Uh, 'Ro-becca?'" she asked.
"She's a highly advanced robot, capable of cleaning for when I'm gone," Snively replied.
"Gone? Where're you goin'?" Sam asked, following her husband around the workshop.
"Sam, do not worry. It's just for if we need a babysitter, really."
"...Oh, why didn't you just say so?"
"No reason, I suppose."
"She used to have a few bugs in her, but we worked them out," Rotor said.
"That's good, I guess," Sam replied. "Anyways, I need to talk to you, Snively. There are a few things to it too."
"Good or bad?"
"One good and two I'm not really that sure on."
"Rotor, do you mind if I leave early?"
"Aw, you don't gotta do that!" Sam protested.
"Sam, isn't Sophia's coronation coming up?"
"I don't know. When is it?"
"Tonight."
"What?!"
"Tomorrow we'll continue this," Snively said, "I've a feeling Sam'll want to go to Earth."
"See ya tomorrow," Rotor said watching the couple walk out with their baby.
----
Sam popped in and out of formal-wear stores, looking for a dress, thankful that Mecha would watch Chibi for a few hours. Her husband had made it obviously known that she was to wear a dress, or, even more precise, an evening gown. She couldn't stand to wear a long skirt very long, much less a full fledged gown. That was why she only wore her wedding dress for a couple of hours. 'I was planning on leaving Knothole with it on. That was before Snively had his 'lil'' accident, Sam thought. Speaking of which, where's he at?'
She saw him following behind, jogging to catch up because she was a fairly large distance ahead of him. "Sam, I know you're in a hurry, but will you please slow down? It's rather difficult keeping with your pace," he said, panting a little. She walked up to him, letting him catch his breath, for he wasn't used to running like she was when she was in training. She noticed his speech wasn't as relaxed as it was a couple of months ago, when they were at the Overlander Territories.
"Listen, if you want to take a break, I'll go ahead and look a bit more, 'kay?" Sam said, sitting him on a park bench.
"I don't think so. I know you'll more than likely pick something that wouldn't be acceptable to wear to a coronation," Snively answered.
"You sound like my dad. If I swear that I'll pick something 'decent,'" Sam said, using her hands for quotations, "will you let me go by myself?"
"I suppose," Snively replied, unsure.
"See ya later!" Sam said, giving him a quick kiss before taking off. He watched people walk by for at least half an hour before seeing Sam with two fairly large bags. He stood.
"I see you found something. How much did you spend?"
"Uh, $176.68. You'll like it though," Sam promised. 'He'd better.'
----
Rosie watched the younger two children while Mecha was permitted to go with his parents. All of the core Freedom Fighters went also to the coronation. Sam refused to show anyone her gown and wore a dark cloak over it. Once they got to the Moon Palace, Sam looked immediately bored. She had her hair up in a top knot, somewhat similar to how she had it on her wedding day.
"Sam, you know I'm not particularly fond of surprises. Please at least tell me what you're wearing," Snively said.
"Nope, it's a surprise. You'll find out when everyone else does," Sam replied. Mecha had long left them, after seeing some of his friends. Sophia walked up to them, in a panicked way.
"You look calm," Sam commented.
"Calm? How the hell am I supposed to be calm? I'm walking into my coronation to be crowned queen of the frickin' universe!" Sophia blurted.
"I believe what Sam is trying to say is you need to relax. It will be over before you know it," Snively said reassuringly.
"No kidding, Sof. I don't think it would be that great of an idea to rule the universe acting like a basket case," Sam added.
"Sam, go see if Rosie is having any trouble with Hope and Serenity," Snively suggested.
"'Kay." Sam opened a portal and walked through.
"I'm just not ready to take on this much responsibility all at once," Sophia said.
"In reality, you are only taking control of the Moon Kingdom. The other planets have rulers of their own and they only need assistance in case of an emergency. So, you have nothing to worry about," Snively replied. Sam care back with Hope in tow.
"Sam, why is Hope here?" Snively inquired.
"She gave me the 'puppy-dog' eyes," Sam replied.
"I'll be good, I promise," Hope insisted.
"Alright, but one mishap from you and you are going back to Rosie's," Snively said. Hope walked off to find some of her palace friends.
----
The coronation began after another hour. Since they were still part of the royal court, Sam and Snively had to walk down the aisle. Sam had shed her cloak when they came into the large hall. The hall itself's decorations, which consisted of banners, flowers, and orchestra, and hundreds of guests, couldn't compare to Sam's gown. It was long and the purest of white. The dress was made of silk and the skirt was big and seemed flowy. She had a moon flower in her hair, compliments of her husband, next to her tiara. As they were walking up the aisle, a guest noticed Sam's heels were a silver color and barely made any sound. Sam noticed several of the females staring at them. She looked over to Snively and almost understood why. "They're all staring at you," she muttered low enough for him to hear.
"It's only because you are at my side," he murmured back. He took her hand and held it the rest of the way to the front of the hall. Sam observed that he wasn't getting as many stares as he was before and held her head up high because of it.
As soon as they got to the front of the hall, they separated; Sam went to the left, Snively the right. Soon, the other Senshi, each accompanied by a man, were up with them. Sophia came last, by herself, looking a little more confident than before. Her dress was similar to Sam's, but was more formal (it had sleeves, but was strapless, where her sister's was strapless and had no sleeves and was revealing; Sophia had caught Snively sneaking a few looks at Sam), and was pink. The ceremony itself was at least two hours long. Snively and the Senshi noticed Sam getting antsy after the first twenty minutes. Snively gave her and implied 'don't do anything stupid' look and she tried to acknowledge it as much as she possibly could. Sophia answered and had done everything as best as she could.
After the ceremony, there was a massive formal dinner party, fortunately for Sam. "Did you not eat anything before we left?" Snively inquired.
"...no," Sam replied. They sat down by each other. "Hey, Snively?"
"Yes?"
"What's this red stuff?"
"It's wine."
"Wine? Looks like blood if you ask me," Sam said.
Snively took a sip from his glass. "No one did ask you. Sam, it's fine; it tastes like black-cherries," Snively answered. Sam drank half of the glass and spit it back in.
"Sam!" Snively whispered harshly.
"What?"
"You do not do that in public!"
"Well, you didn't tell me that wine tastes like crap. What do you expect?"
"I expected you to act like you had some sort of decency and not act like you were raised in a barn," Snively retorted.
"Are you mad?" Sam asked. Snively sighed.
"No, I should have expected you to do that." Sam noticed Simon walking by and tapped his arm. "Can you take this back to the kitchen?"
"Of course, princess," Simon replied. He took the wine glass and walked off into the kitchen's direction.
"Hey, does beer taste any better?"
Snively smiled, "I'll take you out sometime so you can try a little of each."
----
"Yeah! We're the state champions of football!" Matthew exclaimed.
"Dude, chill," Taylor said.
"What's your problem? Ticked that you can't tell your sister Sam?" inquired Nick.
Taylor shook his head. Sam was his foster sister and he hadn't heard from her for at least four years. He was seventeen now, with sandy blonde hair, hazel eyes, and, he was happy for this, had a six pack.
"Taylor? You okay, man?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Taylor, some guy brought beer!" Brandon said walking up. He looked almost like Taylor except his hair was brown and he didn't have a six pack.
"So?"
"If mom found out, she'd flip!"
"Hey, she left the house to us for the weekend, so we should party," Taylor replied.
"Forget it. I'm crashin' at Jessi's (A.N. Jessi is their older sister) for the night," Brandon said.
"Whatever," Taylor scoffed. Brandon turned and left without saying a word more.
"Hey, Tay!" A girl said. Taylor turned to see Tori, his bleach blonde haired, anorexic girlfriend coming up to him with two bottles of beer.
"Thanks babe. Catch you guys later?" Taylor said. The other two nodded and flashed him devilish smiles.
----
Hours later, Taylor's head was swimming. He knew it was from all of the beer he had. He looked over to see Tori, who was asleep in his bed with him. Memories of the past few hours flooded his already blurred thoughts. He got up, dressed, and walked to the bathroom. He could hear the party still going on downstairs. Once inside the bathroom, he sank to his knees and threw up in the toilet repeatedly. Feeling dizzy and that his headache was worse, he opened the medicine cabinet and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. He pulled out eight pills, shoved them in his mouth and downed them with a swig of beer. He swayed down the steps and joined in with the rest of his guy friends.
Brandon walked in seeing a brunch of drunken high schoolers. He shoved his way to his older brother. "Hey, get these guys outta here," he said. Before Taylor could say a word, he passed out.
"Taylor!"
----
Sam's phone rang at 1:30 in the morning. Sam broke off the kiss she and Snively were engaged in and answered, though Snively protested.
"Hello?"
"Sam, thank God you picked up. This is Brandon." Sam sat up, shoving her husband off of her, him grumbling in the process.
"Dude, why the hell are you calling me at 1:31 in the morning?" she demanded. She felt Snively caress her skin with his lips and tried to block out the pleasure it was giving her.
"Taylor's in the hospital; can you come?" She heard her brother's frightened tone. "Uh, can you hold on a sec?"
After hearing his answer she turned to Snively. He noticed the concern on her face. "I need to go to Earth; Taylor, my lil' bro, is in the hospital and it doesn't sound good."
"I understand."
"You still there?" Sam asked on her phone.
"Yeah, I'm at L.A.'s hospital now," Brandon said.
"How? You can't drive."
"Don't tell mom I drove Taylor's Porsche."
"I won't and I'll be there in a few. Just hang tight," Sam said. She hung up and laid back in the bed.
"What's wrong?" Snively asked, pulling her on him, so he could see her face.
"Brandon doesn't know; he didn't tell me much. He's always been like that when he's scared. I'll call a nanny to watch the kids. I want you to come with me," she said.
He kissed her forehead and gave her a hug.
"You need a shower, you stink," she said.
"You do too."
"Take one together?"
"Considering the situation at hand, yes," Snively answered. Sam threw on her robe and pulled out clothes out of her dresser drawers. Snively also got clothes and was already in the shower by the time Sam got in. Snively got out a minute later, got ready, and called the Moon Palace for a baby-sitter. By the time the sitter came and was informed by Snively on what to do and how to do it, Sam came out of the bathroom.
"Do you have the car keys?" Snively asked.
"Yeah."
"Let's go."
----
Brandon paced the hospital's waiting room, waiting for Sam. He had heard some man's voice in the background when he had called her an hour ago.
"Brandon?" He turned and saw Sam running down the hall with some guy. Brandon wouldn't have called him ugly per say put peculiar looking. He heard Jessi say once that say had an odd taste in men. 'Is that the guy I heard?'
"Brandon, are you okay? What's going on?" Sam asked.
"I'm fine. Who's this?"
"Uh, Snively, my husband."
"Husband? Nice going, man," Brandon said, receiving a smile from Snively.
"So, what's wrong?" Sam prompted.
"Our football team won the state championship and Taylor had a party at home since mom's on a business trip. Some guy brought beer and I left because of it. Tori, his girlfriend, was coming up to him with a couple beers when I left.
"I went back a few hours later to see what was going on. He was talking to Matthew, Nick, and a few others when I came up. And, you know the rest. I already called mom too and she's on her way now," Brandon replied.
"Are you Taylor Brody's family?" a nurse asked.
"Uh, yeah," Sam said.
"The doctor would like to see you now," the nurse answered. They followed the nurse down several halls into a small office cubicle. "Taylor has alcohol poisoning and has had and overdose of aspirin," the doctor said, not bothering with formalities.
"Is that bad?" Sam inquired.
"I'm afraid so," the doctor replied. "He will need to stay overnight for observation."
They trudged tiredly back into the waiting room. They sat around, Sam getting up quickly and suddenly before walking around the room and sitting down again every once in a while.
"Brandon?" a woman's voice inquired. He got up to greet his mom with Sam following after.
"Sam, how wonderful to see you again, considering the circumstances," Mrs. Brody said.
"Yeah, good to see you too," she replied.
"How have you been? How's college? Why haven't you kept contact?" Mrs. Brody said.
"I'm fine, Senshi's good too. I'm not going to school anymore, Mom." Snively noticed Sam turn her head away from her foster mother, as if she were ashamed of her intelligence level.
"Why not?"
"I'm just not good at school, you know that already."
"Yeah, and you skipped a lot too," Brandon added.
"That explains a few things," Snively said, standing up.
"Who are you?" Mrs. Brody questioned.
"I'm Snively Kintobor, Sam's, uh, husband," Snively supplied.
"Husband? Sam, whatever happened to 'I ain't gonna get married even if my life depended on it?'"
"I forgot." The four sat down and talked until they each drifted off to sleep.
----
"Hey, how are the kids doing?" Sam asked. She was on the phone with the nanny, checking in with her. Once she heard everything was fine and not to worry, she said, "I don't know how much longer this'll take."
She hung up and looked at Snively. His head was resting on her shoulder, asleep. She kissed his forehead and got up, trying hard not to wake him to get a soda. Figuring the others would be hungry later, she left the hospital and headed toward the nearest Denny's in her silver lambo.
----
While Sam was getting breakfast, Snively was just beginning to wake up. Noticing that Sam was gone, he figured she went to find the cafeteria. He got up, stretched a little, and looked for it himself. After finding it, he saw that Sam wasn't there. He called her phone, getting her voice mail. He went back to the waiting room seeing Mrs. Brody getting up.
"Where's Sam?"
"That's what I'd like to know," Snively responded. He picked up Sam's notebook off the floor, reading some of it. He'd seen most of it before but went back when he noticed something unusual. 'What is she doing writing a break-up song?' he wondered. He flipped through it some more, seeing words like 'break-up,' 'hater,' liar,' and 'woman.'
"Mornin' all," Sam greeted.
"Where have you been?" Mrs. Brody inquired before Snively could.
"Out. I got breakfast," Sam replied. She handed her foster mother the bags, and Snively pulled her over.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"No, why?" He noticed her tone seemed defensive, like she was hiding something.
"You've been writing some...odd lyrics lately," he answered.
"You went through my stuff? You can't do that! That's my personal belonging," Sam snapped back, clearly upset. She turned away, looking at Mrs. Brody.
"Mom, the cops went to your house to see if anyone was still there. They found Tori upstairs in Taylor's bed..dead," Sam said.
"Dead?" Mrs. Brody squeaked.
"They said that she hadn't been eating for at least two weeks and had had too much alcohol."
"Sam? Sam Brody?" a man's voice said. Sam turned around, squealed, and ran towards the man. "Jeremy!"
The man, Jeremy, welcomed Sam with an open hug and a kiss to the cheek. Sam returned the affection and brought him over to the other two.
"Hi, Mrs. Brody," Jeremy said, disregarding Snively. 'He can't just walk up to my wife and kiss her,' Snively thought coldly.
"Excuse me, but I do not find it wise to come on to a man's spouse, seeing how he is standing in front of you," he said curtly. Sam looked at him.
"And I don't think you should stay stuff like that to my friends," Sam snipped back.
"I'm trying to protect you!" Snively pointed out. He felt his face flushen as his anger was rising.
"Protect me? You're hurting my feelings is what you're doing! Not to mention Jeremy's!"
"You are too damn stubborn to know what I'm doing," Snively yelled.
"Maybe I should just leave then," Sam yelled back, just as loud.
"Then leave," Snively said in a calmer voice.
"You're just like Robotnik," Sam said, shaking her head, "let's go Jeremy." He nodded and they both left side-by-side. Snively sat down in a chair, head in his hands.
"She'll come around," Mrs. Brody said reassuringly.
"I'm not so sure. She's been acting very moody lately. Has she been like this before?" Snively inquired, referring to Sam.
"No."
"Mrs. Brody?" a nurse said. She looked nervous; Snively assumed she had heard the fight before coming in.
"Yes?"
"Taylor is awake; would you care to see him?"
"Yes, of course. Snively, care to join me?"
"No, I think I'll go for a walk to recollect my thoughts," he replied getting up. He wandered around the building for awhile before seeing Sam being held by Jeremy, who was trying to comfort her. He walked briskly past them, noticing Sam's tear-streaked face looking up at him with her ever- so- innocent blue eyes. He continued down the hall, hearing her choked sob and Jeremy telling her to relax.
----
A few weeks later, things didn't seem to return to normal. The tension between Snively and Sam remained and continued to pull them apart little by little. Sam started to have late night phone calls and was especially quiet around Snively. When he inquired her about it, she would get bent up and told him to 'mind his own business, he didn't have to know everything that was going on in her life.'
One day, he noticed her packing some of her old things into boxes. He saw a picture of Erika on the table. Once he got a better look, he saw it was a Cd. It had Erika's face on it with her name in cursive under her picture. 'Mercury' was written on the top with a rain drop. He flipped it over to read the discography:
1. Weird
2. Boyfriend
3. Misery Business
4. Take Me Away
5. Mr. James Dean
6. Never Again
7. Like Whoa (feat. Alex Jones)
8. Tourniquet
9. 4-Ever (feat. Sam Brody)
10. You Decide
11. Sweet Sacrifice
12. Dignity
13. Shut Up and Drive
14. In the Rough
15. Hit Me Up
16. (Bonus Track) Shadow
"Sam, when did Erika release her Cd?" he queried.
"Tuesday."
"What are you doing packing all of your things?"
"It's none of your concern!" Sam said, exasperated.
"I do believe it is. Why are you so quiet? What's wrong because I doubt everything is fine," Snively said.
"Well, it is. Just leave me alone so I can get this done."
He sighed. "I love you Sam, by sometimes I wonder how we ever got this far."
"Yeah, back atcha," she replied in a cold tone, walking swiftly to their room, getting some more of her things together. Snively left in a portal to pick Hope up from school.
----
Later that evening, Snively felt Sam leave the bed. He turned and saw her putting on her robe.
"Sam," he asked, his voice groggy, "where are you going?"
"I'm going to check on Chibi." He got up and walked up to her, putting his arms around her.
"Be careful," he said, giving her a kiss. She blinked and pulled away, going towards Hope and Chibi's room (they moved Chibi in with Hope to give them more privacy), not even trying to return the affection. Snively got back in bed, deciding to wait for her. After waiting for two hours, he got up again to look for her. He didn't have to go far. He peeked into the living room, seeing Sam sitting on the couch, talking on the phone.
"No, I can't today, I'm already doing something. Whadda 'bout tomorrow?" Sam asked. She paused for a moment.
"Sounds great! See ya in a couple of days," she said. She hung up and turned to see Snively in the doorway.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"Checking to see if you're alright, since you never came back to bed," he replied.
"Well, I'm fine. I had to take care of a couple of things, okay?" Sam had snapped. She stormed back into their bedroom, brushing past him somewhat roughly. He followed her and got in bed beside her and was about to wrap his arms around her when he heard her say, "don't." He obeyed; however, it was a reluctant act of obedience.
----
The next day, the sky seemed dark and cloudy, a sign that a storm was brewing. Both Snively and Sam seemed extremely moody, irritated by the smallest things. Sam barely spoke a word to Snively when he said something to her. Hope ran off with Amy and Tails, complaining that her parents were fighting. Mecha walked around with Mina, just as upset. Even Chibi seemed to notice something was off balance.
Sonic, Sally, King Acorn, and Bunnie came over to discuss a mission and noticed Snively seemed to be clueless on what to do, like he had given up hope. "Why don't you two go outside and talk?" King Acorn said.
"By the way, that's not a mere suggestion, it's a royal order." Both humans walked outside unwillingly, Sam being the slower of the two.
"So," she said once they were outside, "talk."
"Sam, I've had it with you. I don't know what's wrong with you, but I suggest you drop it now," Snively said, his voice rising. A clap of thunder sounded across the sky, and a few of Knothole's citizens had saw the arguing and stood closer to the couple to hear better.
"I'm NOT acting!" Sam said, little louder.
"Sam, you've been acting this way for months. I demand to know why!"
"THERE IS NO 'WHY'!"
"Sam," he said, reaching for her hand. Shadow overheard and walked over to stop the fight.
"Don't you dare touch me."
"YOU'RE JUST UPSET BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO ONE TO RIVAL YOUR MAGIC!" Snively bellowed.
"Yeah, uh-huh, sure I am. And you weren't jealous when Jeremy stopped in at the hospital."
"I WASN'T JEALOUS! I WAS TRYING TO PROTECT YOU FROM HIM!!"
"UH, HELLO! THAT'S CALLED JEALOUSY!"
"No man goes up to another's wife and gives her a kiss, especially when her husband is STANDING RIGHT THERE!" Snively thundered, his face red from yelling.
"WELL, MAYBE I LIKED IT!!" Sam screamed.
"IF YOU LIKED IT SO MUCH, WHY DON'T YOU GO TO HIM!"
Mecha, Sonic, and Shadow tried to separate the two, Mecha pleading his parents to stop. But, each stood their ground, no intention to back off of the other. They were both in each other's faces. "What's that supposed to mean?" Sam demanded harshly.
"I WANT, no, I DEMAND A DIVORCE!!!" Snively yelled in Sam's face as loud as he possibly could. Sam took a step back.
"What?" Her voice was small.
"You heard me; the whole damn village heard me!" He started to walk off as the rain started to pour. Sam ran in front of him. "No, Snively, no please."
He dodged her and continued as the rain poured harder. "No, baby, no, please Snively!"
"It's over, Sam. You can stop pretending now," he said.
"But I, I-I d-don't, I don't-"
"Don't understand?" he said. He grabbed her roughly and gave her a kiss. It wasn't like all of the others Sam had gotten from him; this one lacked all of the love, of the tenderness, warmth, and magic. He turned and walked into Rotor's workshop, slamming the door in her face. Sam, along with the rest of Knothole, knew it was Sam's Greatest Defeat.
The End...
Q.N.
Surprised? I was to and I was the one who wrote it. This isn't the end of the series, though. If you want to look for Erika's songs, maybe to put them on Cd for yourself, here's who the songs are really by:
1. Weird—Hilary Duff
2. Boyfriend—Ashlee Simpson
3. Misery Business—Paramount
4. Take Me Away—Avril Lavigne
5. Mr. James Dean—Hilary Duff
6. Never Again—Kelly Clarkson
7. Like Whoa—Aly and Aj
8. Tourniquet—Evanescence
9. 4-Ever—The Veronicas
10. You Decide—Fireflight
11. Sweet Sacrifice—Evanescence
12. Dignity—Hilary Duff
13. Shut and Drive—Rihanna
14. In the Rough—Anna Nalick
15. Hit Me Up—Gia Farrell (How do you spell her last name?)
16. (Bonus) Shadow—Ashlee Simpson
You'll hopefully get to see Sam's in the next one, no promises. Until next time...
Later!
M.P.
Oh! 'I Hope You Dance' is by Lee Ann Womack.